Thai officials caught altering exam scores for bribes of up to US$24,000

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered an investigation into allegations of mass cheating in civil service exams to attain government jobs, after thousands of tests were allegedly tampered with to boost scores in exchange for fees of up to US$24,000 each time.
The scandal erupted after police and anti-corruption officials raided a company address in Nonthaburi outside Bangkok on Tuesday and found at least 10 officials on site tampering with computerised scores “to help applicants who had paid bribes” pass the exams.
Initial checks suggest bribes might have been paid for at least 3,000 tests from last year’s exams across the country.
The price for passing civil service exams through tampering ranged from 350,000 baht (US$10,500) to as much as 800,000 baht (US$24,000), officials said.
In a video of another bust in Petchabhun province linked to the initial raid shared by Thai police, a stunned civil servant in a khaki uniform explains how she became involved in the fraud.
“My friends,” says the woman, whose face is obscured in the video, admitting her job is to correct exam answers with a computer.
The municipality the woman represented – Wichian Buri, Petchabun province – took to social media to distance itself from the scandal, saying it “had no affiliation with, no prior knowledge of, and no participation whatsoever in the aforementioned fraudulent acts or corruption scheme”.

The value of bribes uncovered so far totalled tens of millions of dollars, raising questions about transparency and competence at local government offices across the country.
Asked what he intended to do with officials found to have cheated, Anutin told reporters on Tuesday that he would “hit them with the full force of the law”.
Investigations began after audio clips emerged of tutors offering “internal connections” to guarantee passing the exam, according to the Bangkok Post.
The director general of the Department of Local Administration has been temporarily “reassigned” from the post pending the probe, according to the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand
The country’s anti-corruption agency was “widening its inquiry to include examination organisers, coordinators and tutors”, the state-owned public broadcaster reported, adding that previous exam results were under review to see if any unlawful appointments “should be revoked” if they were found to have been attained through bribes.
The issue has revived scrutiny of Thailand’s struggles to tackle corruption, with Thais often complaining about a pay-to-play culture among some officials to do their jobs and poor local government services.
Transparency International rates Thailand 116th out of 182 nations on its annual Corruption Perceptions Index – a position that has barely moved for years despite repeated government vows to root out corruption.